BE A BALLER -"Building a lifelong legacy"

Dr. Moses Newsome: Legacy Lessons From An HBCU Giant

• Coach Tim Brown, Uncommon Life • Season 6 • Episode 12

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A celebration can tell you everything about a leader’s life’s work. When Dr. Moses Newsome Jr. returned to Norfolk State University for the 30th anniversary of its social work PhD—the school’s first doctoral program—he saw former students running departments, teaching his own daughter, and carrying forward a mission built on access, excellence, empowerment, and legacy. We dive into how those outcomes were forged: a childhood in Charleston, WV where compassion wasn’t preached, it was practiced; a track scholarship to Toledo that opened the first door; and mentors who steered raw purpose toward social work and higher education.

From the Howard classroom to the dean’s office, Dr. Newsome describes the moment he realized teaching 20 students at a time wasn’t enough. He began writing to scale his message, then pursued leadership to build structures where service could multiply. That vision drove a decade-long effort to launch Norfolk State’s PhD program, navigating state approvals and institutional change to lift a master’s-level university into doctoral territory. The story doesn’t stop there—he went on to shape national standards with the Council on Social Work Education, embedding inclusive curricula, international perspectives, and community engagement across HBCUs and PWIs alike.

We also unpack what makes HBCUs uniquely powerful: real nurture, practical support, and faculty who refuse to let students fall through the cracks. For early-career academics, Dr. Newsome offers hard-won advice—pick your lane (micro, or macro), find mentors aligned with your mission, and build a body of work that opens doors for others. His definition of legacy is both personal and systemic: not just who follows you, but what practices they carry forward. Listen for a masterclass in servant leadership, institutional change, and the kind of commitment that turns a career into a lineage. If this resonated, subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway so more listeners can find the show.

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SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to Be A Baller, where we're building a lifelong legacy for our families, communities, and the world. Your host, Coach Tim Brown, is excited for you to join him on this journey. On each episode, we'll be talking about how to be intentional about building a lasting legacy. We'll be exploring what it means to leave a mark that goes beyond just our lives, but has a positive impact on those around us and even generations to come. So if you're looking for inspiration, guidance, and practical tips on how to build a lasting legacy that makes a difference, then you're in the right place. So grab your earbuds, get comfortable, and let's dive in. It's time to be a baller.

SPEAKER_02:

Welcome back to Be a Baller Podcast. I'm your host, Coach Tim Brown. And on the Be a Baller Podcast, we celebrate leaders who are building a lifelong legacy and inspiring the next generation to do the same. Today we're honored to sit down with a true giant in HBCU leadership and higher education, Dr. Moses Newsom Jr. Over more than five decades, Dr. Newsome has shaped students, faculty, and entire institutions as some of the nation's most impactful HBCUs, Howard University, Norfolk State, Mississippi Valley State. From building academic programs and accredited accreditation success to strengthen communities, partnerships, and student opportunities, Dr. Newsome has lived the mission of HBCU's Access, Excellence, Empowerment, and Legacy. Dr. Newsom, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much. Glad to be here. Yeah, I'm just so excited for this. So I want to jump right into that big celebration they had for you recently down in Norfolk State. Uh can you talk about that and how that made you feel?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yes, that was truly uh an amazing event. Uh what it was was the uh celebration of the 30th anniversary of the founding of the PhD program in social work at Norfolk State. And it was the first PhD that the university had had offered. So uh that made it particularly impactful. And uh just to go there and see the the new chairman of that program who was a student of mine back in 1987, and I could not believe it. She was she's now she's gone on, done great things herself uh as through the uh in the in the university and the state and even in the nation. Uh but uh here we were uh with since that time in 30 years, they have graduated, I think, over 40 PhDs, new PhDs. And uh it is was truly amazing. I had quite frankly, I had lost contact with them. I I periodically over the years, I the people unfortunately had died, and uh others had gone on to in other fields, etc. But to go back there and see the uh the former students who have then gone on, some of them had gone on and done great things in universities. One was a student of mine who then went on to become a faculty member for my my daughter at Virginia Commonwealth. Uh my daughter talked about legacy, she went on to get her master's in social work, and she got it from uh not one, actually, there were two faculty members there that I taught that ended up teaching her uh for her master's degree. So um it was just truly amazing. The of course the president was there and the provost and uh a lot of the alums and current students were there, and it was just uh a very uh delightful, impactful experience. Awesome.

SPEAKER_02:

You know, you uh you know you grew up in uh Charleston, West Virginia, and you have a unique story. How did you end up at the University of Toledo? I know you're a great athlete. Can you talk about that experience?

SPEAKER_01:

Sure. Um well coming up in and grew up, I did grow up in Charleston, West Virginia's uh son of a preacher, uh I'm a PK of preacher's son. All right. And uh there were four of us. We had four kids. They had four kids, uh three three males and one uh female. She was the oldest, I was an ex, and then two under me. And we um we all grew up there, and it was interesting because everybody always thought that one of us was going to be a minister, because you know, my father was the pastor of uh one of the big churches in Charleston, West Virginia, and uh had quite a reputation there, and we were uh of course involved in the church from day one. Uh, but none of us really became ministers. We started doing our ministry in our own way. Uh me through social work, uh one brother through medicine, and he went off to Africa and did great things, and and of course, I just mentioned about Ronald in business uh in his own way, and my other sister in uh in uh in education, elementary education, very much involved in the community. But to be more specific in relation to your question, I um growing up as a preacher kid, preacher's kid, uh is not easy because you uh are constantly uh in the spotlight, you're constantly uh uh either badgered or teased, or uh, well, you peach peak, and being Reb Newsom's son was uh had advantages, but it also had disadvantages because everybody was trying to quite frankly get as teased, or you the peaches kidding, whatever, you know. So we had a few, had a few scuffles, you know, trying to quote prove myself. And so rather than uh trying to fight everybody all the time, I said, what I'm gonna do, I'm just gonna get into athletics and letting my reputation show them that, you know, I'm more than a little preacher's kid type thing. So I started off in in uh football, played that for a while in high school, junior high school, basketball, played that all the way through high school. But the area that I really excelled in was track. And um it just so happened that the track coach that we had, we were had had some very good teams, we were state champs, and uh the track coach at the University of, I mean at uh Charleston High School ended up getting the position at the University of Toledo as a head track coach. So um that's how I came to back, came there. Now I had, I must admit, I did have several other offers, other universities, Western University, Kentucky, uh, University of Michigan. Uh but as you may or may not know, track was all still back in those days considered a minor sport. And they did not pay full scholarships. But Coach Lowe was the guy's name, uh, he came to my house. I remember coming to my house and they had a meeting back in the corner in the back room with my father, and uh I couldn't go in there. I came out, uh they came out and said, uh, you're going to University of Toledo. I see, oh but these other places, you know, Howard, other places, uh, so this is where you're going. And it was because they made it the most attractive offer, uh, which completes, paid all tuition, uh, books, and bookboard home, you know. And uh that's how I got there.

SPEAKER_02:

Wow. You know, your career spans five decades across some of the most respected institutions in the country. What early experiences or mentors shape your calling towards education and social work? Oh, I'm sorry. Can you repeat that? I didn't fully hear me. I was just asking, you know, you've been involved in for five decades of education. Uh, what early experiences or mentors shape your calling toward education and social work?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, okay, yeah, sure. Well, uh believe it or not, it would it actually goes back to uh Charleston, West Virginia. Um there are some experiences that uh I saw I witnesses as a part of what my mother and father did. Uh I mentioned that my father uh was very active in the community. In fact, he worked with uh Martin Luther King and uh they came to the house and Leon Sullivan. They happened to, Leon Sullivan happened to be from West Virginia, you know, the head of the OIC, if you recall. And so I saw them doing things, and I said, what is it that they're doing? They're preaching, but I don't want to be a preacher, but they're doing things that are helping people, you know. I saw, for example, in on a personal level, I saw my mother one time a homeless person came to the house, and I remember like it was yesterday, and uh nobody would do that. She opened the door and he said he was hungry. And I remember my mother went back in the kitchen, got some sweet potatoes, some bread, and some uh some kind of liquid, I don't know what it was exactly, and took it out to him. Why did she left the door open, the man standing at the door, and I went back, I was just a little kid. I said, Wow, you're giving this to this man, you know. And I said, This is something. Another time I saw my father do something. We were downtown, and he was always involved in talking to people, and this man was cold. And this uh another man off the street came. He said, It was so cold, you know, didn't what can you do? Or whatever. He didn't say, What can you do? or something. He my father said, Are you cold? Say, yeah. He gave my father gave him his jacket. Literally gave him the jacket he had on. It was like a mid mid-coat jacket or whatever. And I said, Dan, you're gonna let he he's gonna get it back. How when are you gonna get your jacket back? He needs it more than I do. Experiences like that. I said, You gave this cloth, your clothes off of your back to this man? You don't know him. And uh things like that. And then then in school, uh, and then going to when we uh went off to to college, there was a man who I knew as a kid. I didn't really know what he did, but he was just happening to be a social worker, uh, worked for the uh labor department, and and uh was involved in uh jobs and uh employment and macro type things. And uh I needed a reference. And uh he was very instrumental and and talked to me about it, guy named Parker. And and coincidentally, he ended up living in uh uh in Toledo for a while, and so I was able to see him while I was there. He moved to Toledo. Uh but uh those persons, people like that, and then seeing these uh really shakers and movers in in the civil rights movement during that time, as I said, Leon Sullivan and uh uh Martin Luther King, quite frankly. Um and then hearing about uh other persons like Al Sharpton or whatever was just getting started. Uh so it was people like that that made me begin to see that I can, and I always wanted to be about helping people, and but I didn't really know how to do it. And in fact, when I was uh interviewed uh my fraternity magazine, you know, Duffy, as you know, is a friend of mine. But back there, when I was in and I can think I was in junior in college, and uh uh the the magazine, the national magazine that came to do an interview me because primarily because of my track experience. Uh and so they said at the end, what do you want to do? What kind of degree do you want? Remember, I didn't even have a bachelor's at that time. I said, I started thinking, I said, I want to get a PhD in social psychology. And what I did, I didn't even know there was such a thing. I just said I like sociology and I like psychology. So I'm gonna put those two together and make up a degree and that's getting a PhD in social work. But the point is, I knew there was something that I wanted in those in that area, and uh then of course I as I got uh into uh University of Toledo, I started taking the sociology courses and and I did meet a professor who was uh a taught the one social work course that they had. I was really majoring in sociology and psychology, and they had a social work course who happened to be in a graduate of University of Michigan, and he said, based on what you've done, you need to get your MSW and go to the University of Michigan. So I applied there, and he recommended me, and the rest is history.

SPEAKER_02:

It's a blessing that God puts those people in our lives at the right time, you know. You know, as we travel traveled down the road, was there a was there a moment when you realized you you were not only called to teach but to lead institutions? Was there a moment when you recognize, hey, this is more than just teaching, but to be a leader?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's that's interesting, yeah. Because in fact, there was. When I when I got my doctoral, actually I hadn't finished, but I went to my first place of employment after I was just about finished from Wisconsin, and I started, I got offered a position at Howard as a professor there, assistant professor. And I was teaching, and and all of a sudden I started getting these feelings. I want to get what can be done, what they should do. And I said, Yeah, sure, I have these students in my class, but I only got 20 students. How am I gonna get more of them to hear? So I said, well, maybe I need to teach more classes. Well, I can't teach more than two or three classes or five, six classes. That's still not enough people. And I started trying to figure out how I can uh get the word out there about the importance of being a servant leader, helping those less fortunate, as it were. I was on this mission. And so I said, Well, if these people I'm teaching, maybe they'll go out and tell somebody. But then I said, Well, suppose they don't. Then, well, maybe what I need to do is to write something. So I that's how that's how I started publishing, started writing articles. And I said, Well, these maybe people will read this stuff, and then they will go out and do something good and uh changing and to transform society, as it were. And then I said, Well, suppose they don't read this stuff. Then I got I was constantly getting more and more frustrated. I said, Well, maybe I need to be over an organization where there are people that I can uh lead to do things that I want to see done, as it were. And so I said, Well, maybe I need to get out of teaching and try to be ahead of some organization. So the closest one I was in was obviously the university. So I applied for the assistant dean at Howard, and uh then uh ultimately became the associate dean, you know, then uh head of the doctoral program there, you know, and was getting the word out and doing what I thought was good work, and uh, but it still didn't feel like enough. Uh so I said, well, I need to maybe I need to be ahead of my own department, own program or university department, social work, and then started looking around for deanships, you know. Actually, as fate, well I'd say uh as well, yeah, as fate would have it, I wasn't looking, I was looking one place, but things were coming from another direction. So uh the this ties right back into the situation at Norfolk State. I was a uh consultant for the Department of Health and Human Services at the time, reviewing grants and proposals on these national uh applications. And it was a lady working with me, a team, and she happened to be the founding dean at Norfolk State. Okay, you know, that's where that doctoral program was started. And she said, Um, I'm gonna be retiring, and I think you'd be a good dean. I think you'd be a good right person to take my place. I said, ma'am, I'm I'm associate dean at Howard, you know, I'm not necessarily trying to do that, you know, whatever, uh necessary there. So she said, uh uh, I think you would you should look at it. So as fate would have it, I uh when she did retire, I looked into it, I was asked to look into it, and uh was appointed dean there. Wow, and um then uh I had this vision of trying to get more people out there. If I could train more teachers to be a teacher and a writer and as well as an advocate, you needed the PhD. So that's why I said we need to get a PhD program here at Norfolk State. Well, that was an uphill battle because to go from a master level institution to a doctoral, you have to go through what's called the state council, you have to get recertified at the whole institution, the president's involved, the legislature's involved. And so it took about 10 years to get that program. Right, I was there. I went there in '84, but I stuck to it because I I said there's got to be something bigger out there. There's got this university can do more. There are more people out here that can be uh having an impact. And uh so um and then uh as we've already talked about how that program got started and the great things there, but after I was there at Norfolk State for a while, uh right just coincidentally, right around 1995, when that program started, uh I had a book which just came out, the first book on human behavior and social environment, which was used as a textbook. And I said, okay, this is good. It was used in all the universities, schools of social work in the country. And I said, Oh wow, this is good. This the word is getting out, what I want to say, you know. And but then I said, maybe I've had it done, maybe I've done all I can do in these universities, uh at this university and other ones I've been in. So lo and behold, I was asked to run for the president of the what's called the Council on Social Work Education, which is the accrediting body for all the universities in the country, in the world for that matter. And I said, My goodness, I was really going to take another direction. I was actually I was thinking about going into central administration, like a vice president and provost. But right at that point, uh, when I thought I had done all I could do within one university, another university I worked, I got an opportunity to be a leading force in the national accrediting body. So what I was able to do was to say to all the universities, all the schools of social work, HBCUs and uh predominantly white institutions, you need to have a curriculum that is more inclusive. All the stuff that Trump is trying to wipe out now, we were able to put in, uh, hadn't come been wiped out yet in social work. Uh but all the inclusiveness, diversity, uh, the international perspective uh needed to be incorporated in the curriculum, community development, outreach, uh being a servant leader, as it were, those types of uh concepts and curricula needed to be incorporated. And it got incorporated. I was able to travel all around the world, uh uh Africa and Korea and China, and make sure that they were all on the same page, those programs there. So that experience really uh helped me feel that I was doing something beyond uh just what I was going, just what the few people I was talking to, as it were.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. So that's great. You know, you you uh speaking about the impact of HBCUs, uh you led major initiative at Howard, Norfolk State, Mississippi Valley State University. Uh the question is, what makes HBCU schools uniquely powerful in shaping leaders and communities?

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, I think one of the major things that HBCUs have that other universities don't have, uh predominantly white in particular, is a sense of compassion, okay, a sense of uh ownership and concern and nurturing. And you see, unless you really take a real interest in the student, I don't care whether it's bachelor's, master's, doctoral, they're going to be pulled by other factors at home, work, etc. Um, other factors that are going to pull on to ensure that they uh don't necessarily complete their uh obligations. And so the the compassion, the nurturing, as well as the support. Um the cost is not necessarily as high at HBCU, so we can give more, you know. Uh we can fund more of the uh tuition and books and room, etc. Whereas at these other universities, you may get a scholarship, unless you're an athlete, you know, but it only covers part of what you need. So the support you get, the fiscal and financial and emotional and psychological support uh makes a difference.

SPEAKER_02:

You know, as you think about your career in uh in education, it's been a stellar one. What advice would you give young faculty navigating academia for the first time?

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, uh, I think it's important to uh first be centered in what you want to do. Okay, don't go in, have have a particular goal in mind in terms of what your concentration is going to be, because you can't you can't do see, like in in social work, for example, we have what's called micro, the meso, and the macro, those the the direct, the indirect, and the large-scale impact. You can do something individual level, you can do something community, you do something policy, national level. Find out which one, decide which one you want to focus on. That's the first thing. Then do everything you can to identify a mentor, a a faculty, a person uh who has been there in that department that has similar, if not the same, type of interest. Okay, you need someone to to mentor. You need you need an individual that you can model after. And uh, I mean, there are a lot of people that will do some things for you. You know, you you're gonna be exposed to a lot of uh uh colleagues, uh, but there are gonna be some that are always ahead of you or seeing you, may not be in that department, but they are in that university or even other universities that that can provide a sense of direction and focus for you and keep reinforcing that.

SPEAKER_02:

Great word. That's a great word to young educators. You know, as we uh this is a legacy podcast. When you think about that word legacy, uh Dr. Newsom, what does that word legacy mean to you?

SPEAKER_01:

Legacy to me means being able to identify very clearly a lineage, uh a path that is being followed, one that uh it is uh is desirable, admirable, whether it's individuals following other individuals doing the same thing, okay. Uh you know, universities talk about having a legacy in the sense that uh if your mother went to this university, your daughter or son went there, your grandfather went there, people from the same family go and they place like Harvard and MIT define legacy that way. But I think it can also be defined by not only who follows, but what they follow in. Okay, if you can uh create a situation where you are a role model in a particular discipline, in a particular area, and it may or may not be at a particular institution, then uh you are creating a legacy in the sense that the mission, the goal is continue to be pursued from one generation to the next. That's good.

SPEAKER_02:

Because I think about your legacy and and your dad being a pastor and your mom and and brothers and sisters, what's some of those life lessons you learned at home that help you do and help you become the man you are today?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, again, like I said the earlier, when I see people being not only leaders, but being servants, servant leaders, you are you're willing to to give something to help somebody as well as give them instruction. Okay. I mean, a lot of people can just tell you somebody what to do, but when I saw people like not only my parents, but people like again, King and Leon Sullivan and uh John Hope Franklin uh and other people uh that I was exposed to uh giving a doing. In fact, one of the things that I heard a long time ago, and I practice it, I always tell my people, students that I teach that, and people that I've led in organizations, that you never want to ask anybody to do anything that you would not want that you would not yourself do. So that means you are not too up to get down where the nitty-gritty as it were. Now, granted, you are a leader because you can there's you've heard the expression there, many workers. I mean the harvest is large, but the workers are few. So a leader cannot do it all, but a leader can do his or her part. Okay, and if you convey that that sense that you're never so high that you can't come down and go and do whatever you're asking someone else to do. But you are a leader because you delegate. As a leader, you have to delegate because it is physically impossible for the leader to do everything. That's why there are teams, that's where our organizations, groups, communities. Uh so um being a servant leader, and uh as well as uh being a role model, and and then lastly, there's an expression we have uh in our profession that you want to start where the person is in terms of where you're trying to help them, whatever they're dealing with, that's what you want to focus on, but you also want to stay where they are, and that's what's living. In other words, you can't once a person is is hungry, yes, you need to feed them. Once they have a problem uh that is uh they're out of a house and you find a shelter for them, for example, uh, you can't just stop there because you gotta somehow maintain it. So they gotta have a way of continuing to keep that up. So you need a job, so you need uh a source of improving your skills so that you can keep a job, as it were. And the point being that you have to continue to work with individuals, not just give them a shot in the arm and say goodbye. You know, you start where they are, but you gotta stay with them, stick to them. And uh, that's what it's about. Amen.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, Doc, as we are around the corner coming into this podcast, I want to thank you for your uh over five decades of commitment. That's that word you use quite a bit in this is commitment to service, to serving people. And your legacy, your tree is so so long, so much fruit has been on is on your tree. And I want to thank you for that, for being uh committed servants, committed servant. And I want to thank you for your for your outstanding leadership. And lastly, I want to thank you for your parents and the faith. Uh growing up in a faith household, a free pre-K kid, as you said, and you know, as we can tell, that uh God, God sure works, He works it out for all of us, and and thank you for uh finding your purpose and living out your purpose. Your legacy is truly one of services. I want to thank you for that. So, Dr. Newsom, well, thank you for being a guest on the show, and I just look forward to uh continuing uh the conversation with you uh and and just continue to gather wisdom and knowledge from you. So, for the audience, I thank you for joining Be A Baller Podcast today. And I pray if you enjoyed this show, please uh like, share, and subscribe uh to the channel. This has truly been a blessing. So, Dr. Newsom, thank you for being a part of Be A Baller Podcast.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you, and it's been my pleasure.

SPEAKER_00:

If you've enjoyed this episode, please share it with family and friends. The Be A Baller Podcast is available on all major podcast platforms. This podcast was created by Coach Tim Brown and recorded and edited by the video production class of Worthington Christian High School. Be sure to come back next week as we continue to discuss on how to build a lifelong legacy. Until then, don't forget to be a baller.